PROPOSAL FORM
Proponents are asked to submit this form electronically, either as an attachment to an email, or mailed in to the office on a diskette. Proponents should use MS Word or Word Perfect for the proposal. While no particular graphical form is required for an infoDev proposal, it should be structured as a response to the requests for information listed below.

Prepared by Alexandre Rivas

Proposal for infoDev Activity

Activity ID number: (to be completed by infoDev)

BASIC ACTIVITY DATA

1. Activity Title (one line only)

Establishment of Global University System for South America

2. Date of Proposal.

3. Name of participating organization serving as grantee.

4. Participating organizations, with contact information. Include email addresses when available. (Note that letters of commitment may be required before award of a grant.)

To contribute for the set up of the Global University/South America in order to establish technological alternatives to promote access and use of the available technology for distance learning in the environmental, medical and educational fields.

To strengh interaction among universities, governments and the private sector from the international Amazonia, in order to effectivelly lower the gaps among those countries and the developed world and to foster socio-economic development for present and future generations.

2. Proposed Activities

In partnership with countrie's governments, in particular with the Brazilian surveillance project for Amazonia, SIVAM, it will be launched the basis for a broadband connection among universities members of UNAMAZ and private organizations.

To set up each university member of UNAMAZ with technological conditions (software, hardware and personnel) to generate, receive and replicate knowledge through synchronic and asynchroinic media.

To start personnel training in parternship with other instituions around world like the Las Palmas University, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and Huston Community College.

3. Anticipated Outcome.

It is expected that interaction among the main universities of the international Amazonia will contribute to disseminate information about alternatives to promote sustainable development in Amazonia. At the same time, the region's population will have better access to healthcare information, which will preventively to contribute for a better quality of life. In addition, a number of alternatives for distance learning will be developed what will decrease isolation and offer better opportunities for those living in the region.

A second expectation is that, after or during the implementation of this project, other countries from the Southern portion of South America as well as Central America can benefit from the initiative and to become a member of a continental broadband network.

Finally, this project has the potential to generate entrepreneurial opportunities for the entire region.

Electronic means of communication have been taking an ever greater role in our societies. Internet business, for instance, is expected to move money in the order of billions of dollars. Scientific progress at universities have been enhanced via access to data bases via Internet. Medical equipment, now more than ever, is based on digital equipment, a fact that makes it quite immediate to send the acquired data via Internet, or process it by a PC. In a word, anyone not wired in a way or another will be in a great disadvantage with respect to their peers.

South America is the home of one of the world's unique environment, the Amazon Rainforest. The region was considered as an empty area in terms of human population density, particularly in the Brazilian side. During the last year, the media called the world's attention to the deforestation and biodiversity loss problems that were happening in the region. The world was also concerned about the increasing problems associated with drugs. Those problems were clear indication that the empty area was starting to suffer the consequences of human activities.

Problems like those described above can be substantially minimized if the isolation problem is addressed. Isolation makes people unaware of their importance as citizens and promotes impoverishing and degradation of the environment and economic system. In situations like that, people will not understand the importance to conserve the environment or how to benefit from it without compromise their own future as well as the future of future generations. Ultimately, such unawareness can perpetuate a cycle of economic and social poverty and environmental degradation.

The implementation of modern lower-cost communication technology can drastically reduce the risks threatening the region. A broadband communication network connecting major universities in Amazonia will promote the exchange of scientific information throuhgt universities members of UNAMAZ, access to formal education in a non-traditional format, development of pharmaceutical and other industries associated to biodiversity, development of entreprenueral activities related to distance learning and opportunities to cultural integration and understing among the countries in the region. In addition, such a strong network will develop means and opportunities to establish a broadband connection with the rest of the world and to reduce or eliminate the current intercontinental connection constraints.

12. What is the anticipated outcome of the activity? (who will benefit, what type and magnitude of benefits)

It is expected the following benefits for South America:

Universities from eight countries in the region will have better opportunities for interaction with each other (audio, video, data exchange, etc) and to contribute for developing economic alternatives for growth.

To use natural resources from the region in a sustainable manner and benefit local and global population.

Professors and students in those universities will have opportunities for professional training and knowledge multiplication.

To promote doctors and nurses training and access to modern technology in order to offer better services for the communities.

To promote telemedicine practices among universities hospitals and among the latter and local public clinics in small towns or communities.

Development of entrepreneur capabilities, particularly from students coming out from universities members of UNAMAZ.

13. What specific activities will the activity undertake? (That is, what will the activity produce, such as training, databases created, policy dialogue, etc. These are the actions that will have the impact described in question 11.)

Establishment of broadband connection among universiities member of UNAMAZ.

Some possible forms this activity may take are:

Teleconferences, based on text

Videoconferences

Web-based instructions

Local experts assistance to medium size enterprises

Multimedia development

Scientific knowledge exchange

Establishment of partenrship with UNAMAZ and SIVAM.

Some possible forms this activity may take are:

Broader band connection among small towns and communities in Amazonia utilizing SIVAM and UNAMAZ's capabilities.

Exchange of environmental databases.

Environmental monitoring

Web-based instructions

Establishment of smaller local wireless networks for use in telemedicine, environmental education and trainning in both fields.

Some of the forms this two-way interaction can take are:

Access to environmental databases and monitoring inforamtion

Access to medical data bases

Medical training

Remote diagnostics

Emergency support, like in floods and fire situations

Prevention care

Development of conditions leading to INTERNET-2 systems that will make practices such as telemedicine feasible and affordable to large segments of the population.

14. What type of inputs, such as human and financial resources, facilities, etc. will be required for these activities?

Infrastructure:

satellite earth station,

microwave network,

fixed wireless broadband Internet,

Internet routers and servers,

system engineers, etc.

Content Development:

instructors,

programmers,

teacher trainers,

facilitators,

environmental scientists, etc.

Administrators:

accountants,

financiers,

supervisors,

librarians,

fund seekers, etc.

15. Why is this set of activities a cost effective method of achieving the outcome described in question 12? Is there a lower cost method?

The proposed activities provide the lowest cost effective method to promote the use of advanced broadband Internet for the benefits of societies in South America. In addition, the Brazilian Government has the SIVAM project.

SIVAM is installing in the Brazilian Amazonia infrastructure for satellite communications. In partnership with SIVAM, this project is significantly cost effective.

The wireless Internet requires (i) less regulations, (ii) less initial investments, and (iii) less operating costs. DL and telemedicine can thus provide (i) more flexibility, (ii) more enhanced contents and (iii) more accessibility.

16. Why would this activity be important for the rest of society? Does it represent a general solution to the problem discussed in question 11? Are its activities replicable? How will other groups be able to utilize the experience of this activity?

This activity is a community development approach, firstly with non-profit organizations and secondly with for-profit organizations, thus all applicable groups are inclusive. This activity is to be a model replicable to other localities and regions, as leading the use of the advanced Internet in various sectors of societies. The higher educational institution selected in the locality will have the broadband Internet satellite earth-station, and will become the major Internet Service Provider (ISP) to the local community of non-profit organizations. The higher education institution will then provide teacher training to secondary and elementary schools, and also act as facilitators and technical supporters to other non-profit organizations.

18. How will the activity be sustained following the end of infoDev grant funding, both institutionally and financially?

This activity will be sustained by a regional and local coalition member of the Global University System.

For-profit commercial industrial organizations will be invited into the local community gradually in the second (or later) phase of this pilot project in such a way that they will undertake major portion of financial burden of this venture.

19. What are the major risks to the success of this activity, and how will they be mitigated?

Government regulations on the establishment of broadband Internet infrastructure:

We plan to mitigate this risk as focusing and emphasizing on humanitarian purposes of distance learning and telemedicine, with implementation of the broadband Internet in non-profit organizations in the first phase, e.g., higher, secondary and elementary educational institutions, hospitals, libraries, local governmental agencies, etc.

Disintegration of local coalition:

We plan to mitigate this risk as providing the members of coalition with flexible, open, and equal information, collaboration and standings.

20. How will activities and outcomes be measured, and evaluated? Include plans and schedule for measuring and evaluating impact.

Acceptance of this venture by local community members, increase of outreach students with distance learning methodology, acceptance of telemedicine by local community, etc.

21. How will ownership and control of physical or intellectual assets of the activity be determined? Please certify that infoDev will have title to all intellectual property produced using grant funds.

This subject will be determined on a case-by-case basis along with the formation of local coalition members.

22. What is the activity schedule? Include beginning and end date, as well as major milestones.

FINANCIAL DATA

23. Resources required for activity. Provide separate columns for expenses funded by infoDev and other sources. This budget should be compatible with the inputs listed in question 14. Where possible, disaggregate the budget by activities listed in question 13. For example:

24. Sources of Financing? Include all sources of financing, including contributions other than infoDev and in-kind contributions by proponent organizations. (Written commitments for non-infoDev funding will be required prior to grant award. In the absence of written commitments, infoDev may award a grant contingent upon the securing of co-financing).

PROPONENT DATA

25. Proponent Capability Statements

26. Resumes of proposed staff

Brazil

Alexandre Rivas
Fundação Universidade do Amazonas
Manaus, AM, Brasil

Alexandre Rivas is the director of the Center for Environmental Sciences at the University of Amazonas. He coordinated the Nucleos for Public Finance and Environmental Policies at Fundacao Getulio Vargas/ISAE in Manaus. In 1998 he organized an international teleconference about new technologies for distance learning broadcasted from Manaus and supported by Fundacao Rede Amazonica and Fundacao Getulio Vargas. In 1992, he coordinated in Brazil an educational bilateral project between FUA and the University of Tennessee. He was FUA's representative during his stay in the USA. The main realization during this time was a seminar at the University of Tennessee with the president of the Brazilian Amazonian Surveillance Project and Raytheon's representative to explore the possibility of joint projects in environmental conservation and distance learning.

He graduated in 1988 from the Federal University Ceara. He worked for one year and half in the Federal Agency for Development of the Sao Francisco River Valley in Minas Gerais, Brazil. During this time he also worked as independent consultant for the government of Minas Gerais. In 1990 he entered the Federal University of Amazonas as an auxiliary professor. In May of 1997, he received a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Tennessee. In May 1998, he received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee.

Marco Antonio Dias
Vice President, Global University System
Consultant of United Nations University
Former Director, Division of Higher Education of UNESCO
FRANCE

Marco Antonio Rodrigues Dias, Brazilian was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 17, 1938. He is a retired teacher, consultant of the University of the United Nations, former-director of the Division of Superior Education of UNESCO (October of 1981 to February of 1999). He was the principal coordinator of the World Conference about Superior Education (Paris, October of 1998). He launched and was the general coordinator of the program for international cooperation UNITWIN/Catedras UNESCO and the representative of UNESCO in the Council of the University of United Nations headquartered in Tokyo. He received his Bachelor degree in Law from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1964). Dr Dias also received a diploma of third cycle from University of Paris (1968).

In the sixties Dr. Dias was journalist (Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo). He was the editor of several newspapers and director of the " Folha de Minas " and of the " Radio Jornal de Minas ". In 1963, he was parliamentarian advisory of Ministry of Education (Minister Paulo of Tarso Santos, Joao Goulart's government). In the seventies, he was the head of the Department of Communication and the outreach dean and vice-rector of the University of Brasilia. After retiring, he has been invited for conferences, to participate in international meetings and to advise in international cooperation projects in Spain, France, United States, Senegal, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Finland. He is member of several councils (example: School of America of the Interamerican Academical Organization in Canada and Fundacao Andifes, in Brazil). He is author of dozens of articles and chapters of books published in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese in several countries of the world. He is also the author of the book " The Fact and the Version of the Fact " published by the Catholic University of Minas Gerais in 1993.

Dr. Lourenco received his Ph.D. in Geoscience Engineering by University of California, Berkeley and has occupied many important positions since then. Currently, he is the President of the Administration Council of the BIOAMAZONIA. Between 1995 and 99 he was the Executive Secretary of the National Council for the Legal Amazon-CONAMAZ. During this time he was also the Secretary for the Coordination of Amazonian Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Legal Amazon-MMA. From 1992 to 1995 he was a Member of the Catedra Scientific Commission of UNESCO for Durable Development, Interdisciplinary Studies on Communities and Social Ecology-EICOS/UFRJ. He is also a member of the Fulbright Commission. He is a former Director of INPA (National Institute for Research on the Amazon Region), a federal research agency in Amazonas.

In 1994 he was awarded as the Scientist of the Year by the "Visao Amazonica" Communication System and by the Syndicate of Journalists of Amazonas. In 1993 he received the Medal of National Order of Educational Merit, granted by the President of Brazil. He was also received the Anisio Teixeira Award, granted by CAPES/MEC, in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the improvement of Brazilian scientific and educational institutions, through university teaching, research work activities and institutional leadership, given in 07/11/1991, by the President of Brazil.

Lincoln Campos
Fundação Getulio Vargas / ISAE
Manaus, AM, Brasil

Dr. Campos is the Superintend of the Institute of Superior Studies in Management and Economics in Amazonia, a member from the Fundacao Getulio Vargas Foundation (ISAE/FGV). He is also a professor of the Economics Department at the University of Amazonas. Dr. Campos leads many projects at ISAE/FGV. Among them are a distance learning project developed in partnership with the Brazilian Government and Fundacao Roberto Marinho from Globo Network, the largest Brazilian TV network.

Mário Costa
Fundação Rede Amazônica
Manaus, AM, Brasil

Mr. Costa is a Brazilian from Codajas, a municipality in the State of Amazonas. He is the director from Rede Amazonica Foudation since 1992. From 1986 to 1992 he was the manager for training and development of human resources at SONORA, a photo/film industry. He is a member from the Bahai International Community, and since 1987 he is the president of the Association for Cohesive Development of Amazonia, a philanthropic society.

Mr. Costa has vast experience in organizing and promoting events for TV. He organized the I, II, III, IV, V and VI seminar on Journalism in Amazonia, the I, II and III seminar on Propaganda and Marketing in Amazonia, the I on the International Conference on New Technologies for Distance Learning.

European Union

Tapio Varis
University of Tampere
Tampere, Finland

Tapio Varis is currently Professor and Chair of Media Culture and Communication Education at the University of Tampere Finland (Journalism and Mass Communication and Department of Teacher Education), consultant on new learning technologies for the Finnish Ministry of Education and advisor to several international organizations. In 1996-97, he was UNESCO Chair of Communication Studies at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. He has also been a faculty member of the European Peace University, the University of Art and Design in Helsinki and Communication and Media Scholar at the University of Helsinki.

Tapio Varis is a former Rector of the University for Peace in Costa Rica and Professor of Media Studies in the University of Lapland, Finland. He has published approximately 200 scientific contributions, the latest being Media of the Knowledge Age, published by Helsinki University Press 1995 (in Finnish). He is listed in Who's Who in the World (1984 & 1995) and Men of Achievement (1986 & 1995).

USA

David A. Johnson
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN

Dr. Johnson, AICP, is Professor of Planning at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has been at UTK for 16 years. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Previously he taught in and directed planning departments at Syracuse University and Ball State University. Prof. Johnson received bachelors and masters degrees in architecture and city planning from Yale University and a PhD in regional planning from Cornell University. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in India, Thailand, and the Soviet Union, and is a past President of the Fulbright Association of the United States. He has directed educational projects in Amazonas, Brazil and Coimbra, Portugal.

Professor Johnson also has served as a professional planner on the staffs of the Washington National Capital Planning Commission and the Regional Plan Association of New York. His published writings have focused on planning theory and history and most recently have examined planning activities of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the development of the New York Metropolitan Region. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association and is the author of Planning the Great Metropolis, Chapman & Hall, 1996. Dr. Johnson is active in international distance education and is an advisor to the Global University. He was a member of the planning design team for Tennessee's Bicentennial Mall at the State Capitol in Nashville, dedicated in June 1996.

Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., is Chairman of the GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the USA (GLOSAS/USA) and President of the Global electronic) University (GU/USA) System (a divisional activity of GLOSAS/USA).

He is the 1994 Laureate of Lord Perry Award for the Excellence in Distance Education. His public service has included political work for the deregulation of global telecommunications and the use of e-mail through ARPANET, Telenet and the Internet; working to extend American university courses to the Third World; the conduct of innovative distance teaching trials with "Global Lecture Hall(GLH)" multipoint-to multipoint multimedia interactive videoconferences using hybrid technologies; and lectures, consultation and research in process control, management science, systems science and engineering at the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, M.I.T. and many universities, governmental agencies and large firms in Japan and other countries.

Highlights among his more than 150 related scientific papers and books are presentations at the Summer Computer Simulation Conferences (which he created and named) and the Society for Computer Simulation International. He is a member of various scientific and professional groups, including the Chemists Club (New York, NY); Columbia University Seminar on Computers, Man and Society New York, NY); Fulbright Association (Washington, D.C.); International Center for Integrative Studies (ICIS) (New York, NY); and the Society of Satellite Professionals International (Washington, D.C.).

He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Polytechnic University in New York and his M.S.in Ch.E. from Montana State University, after studying at the University of Nebraska under a Fulbright scholarship. His professional experience in simulation and optimization of petrochemical and refinery processes was gained at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo; Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Boston; Mobil Oil Corporation and Shell Chemical Company, New York; and Asahi Chemical Industry, Inc., Tokyo.

By submitting an activity proposal to infoDev, proponents authorize the infoDev Program to make public the information in fields 1- 10, for the purpose of promoting contacts between proponents and other interested parties.